


The Impressionists

by bibesties



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: F/F, F/M, Gen, M/M, Marauders' Era, Multi, There will be no Peter excluding here my friends, a whole host of random pairings, alcohol mention, set in sixth year probably
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-09-27
Updated: 2014-09-27
Packaged: 2018-02-18 23:38:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,787
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2366210
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bibesties/pseuds/bibesties
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The Gryffindor common room is alight with the euphoria that comes from winning a Quidditch match. There's excitement, alcohol, and a rather irritated Remus Lupin.<br/>Remus/Sirius, inferred Marlene/Gideon, Mary/Emmeline and James/Lily.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Impressionists

**Author's Note:**

> Written for some friends and their Marauders Roleplay, hope you guys like what I did with the idea!
> 
> Humour, friendship, little to no romance.
> 
> If Harry Potter were mine, there would be a hell of a lot less straight characters.

"Okay, okay. How about we do something productive?"

The Gryffindors were reclining around the common room, clad in bright patriotic red and gold colours. Gryffindor had beaten Hufflepuff in a competitive Quidditch match only hours before, and the house members were in high spirits, chattering gleefully amongst each other and swigging firewhiskey, which had been appearing, as if by magic, throughout the evening. Huddled in one corner of the room was a group of students, made up of several people in Quidditch robes who were being admired from all corners of the common room.

Two redheaded boys, Fabian and Gideon, who were hard to tell apart, seemed to be the main centre of attention for the onlookers, as they were loudly telling a joke, bursting into laughter every time the punch line was about to be revealed. The other members of the group in the corner grinned as they watched the twins double over in laughter, chuckling to themselves, keeping their audience on tenderhooks and sipping drinks happily.

James, also clad in Gryffindor quidditch robes, with his noticably springy hair which gave him the appearance of a well ridden broomstick, had been the person to suggest that they do something while they awaited the punch line of the twins' joke.

"And what exactly do you mean by _productive_ , James? A well timed explosion? The loss of our thumbs?" Lily spoke up, her comment earning her a high five from Sirius at the mention of James Potter's Horrendous Thumb Loss Incident, which had occured two weeks earlier. She was sat on James' lap, however she was looking as though she was merely sitting on a rather uncomfortable armchair. It should be noted that nearly all of the other seats were occupied anyway; Marlene and Mary, two girls with similar golden skin, slightly mussed up Gryffindor quidditch robes and hair tied up in ponytails had been forced to sit on the floor, but were grinning eagerly at the identical redheads, who were seemingly known for their irritating but amusing habits, if the girls pleas for them to continue their joke were anything to go by.

"If this is some kind of ridiculous plan of yours, then I'll be going up to the dorms to ignore the screams that will surely come from below," added Emmeline, another member of the Ponytail Club, was sat in an armchair across from James and Lily, looking politely interested, but as though she was secretly hoping to be able to leave, frowning a little as the twins burst out in raucous laughter for the fifth time.

"No, I'm not suggesting anything ridiculous, of course," James shook his head violently, immediately having to rearrange his glasses, which caused Remus to chuckle at his over-exuberant gesture. James glanced at Lily with what seemed to be an attempt at a mature smirk. She rolled her eyes at him and snatched up his beer, emptying the can in one sip, which caused James to have a sort of mesmerized look about his person, before Peter kicked his shin.

"Hear me out, how about ... we do impressions of each other?" James continued, smiling in a way that could be considered a little too proudly at his idea, and his grin widened as the people around him nodded and smiled. He tilted his head to look at Lily, in what seemed to be the deciding vote, and the others cheered as she nodded in agreement. Sirius, looking a little intoxicated with a Gryffindor scarf tied in a bow on his head, cheered the loudest, until Remus smiled and told him to shut up, the noisy prat.

Without furthur ado, the game began, as Marlene, who was friendly albeit loud (which was often quite necessary in present company), launched into an impression of an aged man who seemed to be talking about licorice allsorts. James quickly shouted to everyone that it was Professor Dumbledore, the headmaster, and had only begun saying "James Potter, you beautiful, dateable man," before Lily smacked him across the arm and muttered something about James "never missing an opportunity to embarrass himself".

The others were watching them as though just waiting for something to happen, the Something seeming to be James and Lily announcing their happy relationship, as over the last few months they couldn't help but notice that those two were a lot closer than they had previously been, and had even been witnessed by Peter to be seen flirting on several occasions.

Lily widened her eyes and looked around at the others, speaking dreamily about "the all-seeing eye" causing the others to laugh quietly, and James to admire her uncanny impression of the divination teacher in quiet reverie.

Peter was next, and he stood up, striding around the room and talking about hair lotion. Sirius was soon to call out the name of "Severus Snape", but was silenced a moment later when Mary laughed and said that it was without a doubt Sirius himself, and Peter grinned at him innocently before sitting back down.

Mary chewed her lip in an almost worrying fashion for a minute before passing on her turn to Emmeline as she couldn't for the life of her think of anyone she could impersonate well. Without further ado, Emmeline launched into an accurate impression of their Transfiguration teacher, Professor McGonagall, lecturing about turning swans into vases. The others chuckled and Sirius grinned as he hurriedly said who it was, looking keen to reclaim his position of Most Brilliant Guesser.

"Right, my turn." He coughed dramatically. "Oh, Sirius, you devilishly handsome bloke ..."

The others started laughing and the Prewett twins walked over to the cluster of seats and joined them, after revealing that there had never been a punchline to the joke, which was why they had found it so entertaining. Gideon had been gifted with green eyebrows by Mary in retaliation, but was nevertheless looking pleased with himself. Fabian was requesting his own pair be turned a nice lime green himself.

"Most of the people in your year?" Gideon questioned, helping himself to Marlene's drink, who attempted to shoo him away, but soon admitted defeat.  
"He wishes." Fabian countered, sitting on Emmeline's armrest and receiving a sigh in reply before being pushed off.

Sirius was grinning to himself. "You're not even close."  
The others were raising eyebrows and sipping their beverages thoughtfully before James burst out laughing, managing to choke on his drink, and ended up having to be patted on the back by Lily, who was looking at Sirius with a knowing, if not slightly admonishing, smile.

"You know, I would probably make out with you on this desk right now, if I wasn't trying to study for this exceedingly important test-" Sirius continued in a voice a little higher than his own before being interrupted by Peter's laughter and a sharp elbow in the ribs from Remus, who was starting to look a little red in the face, which would have been from the alcohol, had his bottle not been untouched. He seemed to be muttering something in Sirius' ear that sounded oddly similar to "You'd better shut up right now if you don't want all your underwear thrown in the lake", but Sirius seemed to be resolutely, and tipsily, ignoring him.

Lily spoke before Sirius had the chance to continue. "I think its clear who you are impersonating, and if it isn't then its probably best left that way." She frowned what was known as a death-frown at James, who hastily stopped chuckling and also decided it would be best to skip Sirius' turn. The Prewett twins and Marlene nodded in agreement and started discussing their own ideas for impressions, Fabian seeming to pretend to have wings for some inexplicable reason.

"Agreed, and I think I'll be off to bed before the sixth round of drinks appears," Emmeline said, smiling knowingly to herself before going to kiss Mary on the cheek and wish her goodnight, soon disappearing upstairs.

Sirius was grumbling and looking at James as though he'd just been left stranded on an island by him, but slung his arm around Remus, who looked as though he was plotting the best way to maim said arm, and asked James to continue the game.

"Wait, wait, wait, I'd like to know who Sirius was doing." Mary was looking around in confusion and widened her eyes when James started laughing again after she spoke. Lily began muttering something to him about terrible tact, and a penchant for rubbish innuendos.

Sirius grinned slyly at her and winked. "That's for us to know, and for you to not find out."  
Mary pursed her lips a little but said nothing, watching him carefully in a rather expectant way.

"He means me." Remus said suddenly, looking at Sirius a little exasperatedly and folding his arms when Mary looked at them in shock, all elbows and creased eyebrows and the tiniest of smiles.

"It really isn't that much of a surprise, mate." Fabian said to them, patting Remus on the shoulder, who was now busying himself with rolling up a cigarette in his lap in order to avoid Sirius' hand which seemed to be searching for one of his own.  
"We've known for years." Gideon agreed, grinning at them. Marlene looked a little surprised but shrugged, nestling her head in the crook of Gideon's shoulder as she sat on his lap.

Peter looked over the top of his drink at them. "You two aren't exactly the most subtle of blokes," he added, looking as though he was recalling a memory he'd rather forget. Mary was still looking vaguely confused, although was also now distracted with a chocolate frog she'd snuck out of Gideon's pocket.

"I told you that no-one would mind." Sirius smiled down at Remus, who countered him with "I thought your exact words were more along the lines of 'What if everyone leaves us alone with only the Giant Squid to talk to?'". The two of them soon became involved in a fairly hushed conversation, discussing the pros and cons of hypothetically making their friends Forget that they'd told them about, well, them, and telling them in a much more extravagant fashion. Sirius seemed to be determined to pursuade Remus that getting the aforementioned squid to announce their relationship was a fantastic idea. Remus did not look convinced, but was humouring him nevertheless.

"So," Lily said brightly. "Does anyone want to play another game?"

"As long as you can make it as interesting as the last one!" James retorted, swigging his drink and grinning at her eagerly, well, until she hit him around the head with a threat of hexing something that wouldn't grow back.

No-one had ever seen James stay so silent.

**Author's Note:**

> The final note for this fic is basically Remus' internal monologue:
> 
>  _"What if I slept a little more and forgot about all this nonsense."_ \- Franz Kafka, The Metamorphosis


End file.
